It's Been a Long Day
by nevertoomuch
Summary: For the second time that night,the pieces fall in to place for him to late. Finale speculation and such.


Just a little idea I had about the last scenes of the finale. There are definitely hints of spoiler-ish things here and there but I did't base it off of one in particular so I guess, well, read at your own risk,

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><p>It's been a long day.<p>

If he had to describe it in writing he would say it was less of an emotional rollercoaster and more of a emotional freefall. He takes a quiet moment to drink in her gaze and the way his name falls out of her mouth as she tries to grab his attention. Saying they've _went through_ hell rehashing her mother's case wouldn't be a correct statement.

They're stuck in hell.

Her voice, as well as his, is still raw from the fallout earlier in her apartment and he can tell it's about to crack. She had yelled, he had yelled, she had yelled again. The words that were said are still hanging heavy about their heads.

They had enough time to reopen the festering wounds, but not enough time to sew them back up properly.

"Castle." She places a gun into his not so steady hand, "You need to get about ten blocks down as fast as you can, do you understand? Start looking for the setup at about five though just to be safe." she pauses before adding a last instruction, "Rick, look at me. I _need_ you to be there ok?"

"Okay."

She squeezes her eyes shut quickly and starts to run before he has a chance to say, or do anything more.

So following suit he begins running as well. He was never much of a runner but his feet keep a constant pace as he runs block by block. He's about six blocks away from where he had started when he feels a searing pain.

It's not a bullet. Or a knife stab.

The searing is on the inside. It's eating away at him now because he realizes what her plan was. He turns on his heels, and however fast he was running, he's running ten times faster now. He should have seen it coming. He should have been suspicious when she had given in to him so suddenly. But he just wanted so desperately to help.

So he didn't even realize when what she was really telling him to do was to run in the opposite direction as fast as he could.

And now she was facing Lockwood completely alone.

His feet are falling rapidly against the pavement, but the pace still can't match the speed at which his heart was currently beating. He thinks he hears gunshots in the distance.

He knows he hears gunshots.

He's too late by the time he gets there. Lockwood has retreated. But that's not what he's concerned about. He see's Kate slumping against the wall of a building.

He desperately hopes he isn't imagining the gentle rise and fall of her shoulders. When he gets to her and stops his run, he nearly collapses.

"Castle." The words are strained.

She brings him to his knees as always.

"God, Kate…"

His arms wrap around her pulling her flush to his body, and he thinks if he could, he would just hold her like this for the rest of his life.

"I got him, Rick, I shot him. But he _still _got away, they grabbed him and I…" a fit of coughing interrupts her sentence as he loosens his grip to give her room to breathe.

He is still dripping and sweaty from running and notices something peculiar. His hand is unnaturally warm and slightly sticky as he uses it to push back his hair, so as he lowers it he takes a good look.

For the second time that night, the pieces fall in to place for him to late.

He pulls her jacket away and sees the large red blossom on her crème turtleneck. It starts deep red, almost black, above her right hip but is slowly spreading further and further. Across her sweater, down her leg, on to him.

She cocks her head and gives him a half hearted smile, breath ragged, "I'm sorry, you know."

"Don't say that. Don't apologize."

"I've…treated you horribly…" every word is more labored then the former, "…you said I deserve to be happy… you deserve to be happy Rick. So you're going to pretend any of this never happened. It was all just one of your books."

He was speechless as she continued.

"Give me a good death though."

"What?"

" Nikki… give her a good death, let her catch the killer first, and let her get … some other closure. Please Rick."

"Kate, don't talk like that. I have… I have no intention of killing of Nikki any time soon. She has so much more to do." He could hear the sirens approaching, "So just hold on ok? Because Kate, you have so much more to do…We have so much more to do."

She's slipping away slowly so he holds her until the paramedics arrive.

It's a few hours until he can breathe again ,when they're at the hospital and the doctor tells him, that yes, she has lost a lot of blood, _but yes,_ she will be ok.

It's been a long day.

But he can't describe how glad he is to have many long days ahead. Because they have so much more to do.

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><p>Tell me whatcha' thought :)<p> 


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